I'm going to talk about a bizarre kind of sport event which is almost unknown outside Australia but very very common and deep-rooted in Australian Culture: The Surf Carnivals.

In Australian culture sports carnivals are held to perform competitions in the individual or team disciplines like athletics, swimming or Surf Life Saving. Teams from different clubs or schools gather together for both individual point-score and team score. Often, the carnival is opened by a parade with the teams marching in uniforms and flags over the field of competition.

The most common kind of Carnivals are the Surf ones, usually held bySurf Life Saving Clubs which their nippers and young life savers in competitions. Local, regionall, state and nation wide competitions are held across the country. Junior carnivals compete for age groups starting from under-8 to under-14 while senior competitions among active surf life savers start from under-15 to veterans. Veterens are athletes 30 years and older, the agegroups are in 5 year blocks; 30-34, 35-39, 40-44, all the way up to 65+. surf boat competitions start from 16+.Surf Carnival are so famous that almost every beach has its own, sometimes more than one per year.These pictures by Carlo Borlenghi shows us the Cronulla Surf Carnival that had just taken place in Cronulla, the biggest beach of Sydney